How did you learn to cook?

Browntoa

I learnt in 2 stages

1) my parents split up when I was 11 and so I was first one home, felt sorry for my dad having to do it when he got home from work and so started to read recipe books and cook stuff from them, could make a mean Spotted !!!!!! by the time the rest come home from work at 6- 7 pm

2) got divorced and had no money so I learnt OS cheap meals , buying what as reduced in the supermarket and making the best out of them , big pots of vegetable soup/stew, home made pizza, soya mince chilli that could be frozen in portions. Learnt a whole range of cheap meals that could be cooked in 10-20 mins !!

pigpen

I lived with my gran when I was very tiny until Iwas 8 and she did 'baking days'.. usually when my cousins were coming the next day.. when I was usually at my mothers so I never got much of it!!

When I was older and went to live with my mother she worked so I'd cook meals for her, my stepdad 2 sisters and myself..

since being here I can honestly hand on heart say I have never cooked so much from scratch before.. my carrot cake is hit and miss.. more miss than hit TBH.. and my soups are appallingly inedible! But other stuff.. such as.. biscuits and sponge cakes are fabulous..

Hubby doesn't do anything adventurous.. but is getting slightly better.. he actually looks in the freezer before going to the chippy if I am out now!

I'd say I am mainly 'book taught'

I never did cooking at school because my dad refused to buy me the ingredients because they never made enough for a family of 6... so it was a waste of money.

maypole

A few things from my Mother but mainly trial and error from cook books. My husband bought me a cook book for my wedding present.

My worst mistake as a young bride was to put uncooked stewing steak into pastry and wondering why the meat was so tough when the pastry was done:rotfl: Even after making mistakes, keep trying, it eventually comes right.

Dill

I started cooking for myself in my late teens. (Just got a few recipe books and tried to teach myself) My mum always cooked for us when we were kids, but I didn’t take much interest at the time
When I was at school (late 80s), cookery lessons seemed to be on their way out. I’ll never forget once, we were supposed to make shepherd’s pie… we had to cook the meat mixture at home (with mum’s help in my case, lol) and also cook the potato at home. The ‘lesson’ consisted of putting the mash on top of the meat and baking it!!
Hopefully they’ll re-introduce real cooking lessons (I think they said they will?) and really teach kids how to cook. Not fancy stuff, just everyday meals.

belfastgirl23

Learned the principles from mum (for cooking) and gran (for baking). But what I mostly learned is that cooking is a thing that people do - I think this is what some people really do miss out on these days - they've never seen it done except on TV so it's like white water rafting or something to them

I have been a lot more book taught since I became veggie - but the fact that I'm totally unafraid to try stuff out goes back to what I learned at home.

lil_me

Teaching myself (apart from cheese sause which my Dad taught me) trial and many errors, books and online recipes, some inspiration from TV chefs (who make it look way easier!!!) I find the essential ingredients are a smile (for when it goes terribly wrong) and hungry dogs (who will eat anything and saves me wasting when I mess up) I've lived away from family since I was a teenager but relied a lot on my love of veg, rice and pasta, then many ready meals. (Confession of someone who bought ready made mashed potato)

Sarahsaver

Learnt about cooking everything from porridge to curries from my nanna, mum taught me how not to cook meat (dessicated or cremated - you choose) but cakes cakes cakes...and she made loads of things wiothout looking at a recipe.
Dad taught me were everything comes from, he knew a lot about nature and was bought up to learn how to catch rabbits, pigeons etc, pick wild mushrooms ang he used to let us eat carrots straight fromthe garden after a swish in the water butt, much to mum's horror!
Since then I have also learnt to make baby food (self taught) when i had dd 10 years ago, most of the kids baby food was home made, read cookery books as a student but could not afford the ingredients.
Still learning now and teaching my own kids who have 'specialities', DD is good at anything involving batter - perfect yorkshire puds require her involvement, DS1 is working his way through Jamie Oliver's book at the ripe old age of 7, and little DS aged 6 makes a mean 'taste it as you go along' :rotfl: apple brown betty, and helps me with the odd thing here and there.

thriftlady_2

Almost entirely from books.

I've read hundreds of recipe books and books about food in general. Although I rarely follow recipes (apart from baking, and even then I 'improve' ) I have learnt how to cook without a recipe by reading so many recipes IYSWIM.

I did a bit of baking as a child with my mum, but honestly I'm the better cook now, and she asks my advice these days.

I hate other people cooking in my kitchen, i really have to make myself teach my kids to cook.

Sarahsaver

I know its really weird when my Mum complements me on my cooking or says that she tells her friends how I cook everything

Sunnyday

I love to cook and bake, if i had my way i would stay at home and spend all day in the kitchen.
My mum taught me how to bake and i did have some cooking lessons at school but they were really basic and we only had them for a term.
Dad used to cook a mean curry and various soups and stews so when i started reading the stash of mums cookery books i just wanted to make everything.
My only downfall really is yorkshire puds they just don`t seem to like being made in my kitchen and are really unpredictable:D
SD